Aside from her plump beauty, a brown mother bear’s revenge may have earned her the title for this year’s Fat Bear Week competition.
Bear 128 Grazer, whose cub was killed by her opponent in July, was crowned 2024 champion of the annual park competition that “celebrates the healthy appetites of brown bears” ahead of winter, when they will not eat or drink until they are in the emerge in spring. This is reported by the National Park Service.
Out of more than a million votes, the mama bear edged out Chunk, a male bear weighing more than 1,200 pounds, to become champion, marking Grazier’s second win in recent years. She also beat Chunk for first place last year.
Grazer received more than 70,000 votes. Chunk, who is estimated to be 30 years old, received nearly 30,000 votes.
Fat Bear Week champions over the years: View the big winners
Grazer lost a cub after a Chunk attack
Grazer was brought to Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve as a cub in 2005. In 2024, the bear had two first-year cubs.
In July, one of Grazer’s cubs died after the baby and one of its siblings fell over a waterfall in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. The cubs were transported downstream near Chunk, “the most dominant bear on the river,” according to explore.org, a nonprofit that documents the bears using live cameras.
Chunk attacked the cubs and one died, but Grazer showed courage in defending her cubs.
“Grazer and her surviving cub (a 2024 Fat Bear Junior Week contender) have continued to focus on their efforts to come back for the winter, which seems to be paying off as they are both quite plump,” said Mike Fitz, the creator of Fat Bear. . “Grazer is one of the most formidably successful and adaptable bears, although her story this year shows that even the most fearless mother bears experience hardship and loss.”
Fat Bear Week postponed after the bear’s death
This year’s vote was postponed a week after one of the participants was fatally mauled by a rival bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.
Video footage of the incident captured on the live webcams shows bear number 469, an adult male bear named Patches, and attack bear number 402, an older adult female, while the two were in the water. The murder was streamed live, leading to a brief delay in this year’s reveal.
‘Fatness and success’
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Fat Bear Week. The annual competition started in 2014.
The contest’s champion is determined by votes for the bear believed to be “the best example of the fatness and success of brown bears,” officials wrote on the contest’s website.
Perhaps the 2024 winner will mate, produce another cub and catch a trifecta next year.
You get yours, mama bear.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The winner of Fat Bear Week is Grazer. Mama bear beat Chunk for first place.
